Commended in Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year

February 10, 2016

For all I’ve been taking photographs and making images for a number of years it is only recently I’ve been organised enough to enter a few notable competitions, and now I’m finally proud to say I have received a “Commended” in the Urban Category of the Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year. This is my first “proper” award I’ve got for my photography and I’m over the moon!

While my regular abstract images fell at the 2nd hurdle in this competition, one of my older style faux long exposures came up trumps for me! An image of the magnificent Kelpies structures on the outskirts of Falkirk, one of a series of three (more on them later) made while at the start of a week long photography road trip into Scotland with fellow togs Damien Taylor, Andrew Atkinson and Ian Burton in May 2015

Here is the image – “The Kelpies #120” (120 because it was the 120th capture I made at the location …it was that kind of trip around Scotland!)

The Kelpies #120

About the editing:

Many of you will know I love spending vast amounts of time editing in Adobe Photoshop, playing, experimenting, perfecting. Luckily the Urban category allowed almost unlimited editing whereas other categories had a more limited ruling on the scope of post processing and editing. Lucky because that sky with a wisp of cloud (mimicking a moving cloud in a long exposure) is constructed!

While I did capture long exposure images of the structures at the time, this image was made from a regular speed image (1/400th of a second if I remember rightly) and the existing sky replaced to give me the style I was aiming for while I was on location. While all that effort and time went into cutting out the structure it was only done to highlight the beauty of the structure and the way the glimpse of sunshine lit up the portion of the head it fell on.

The Series:

The Kelpies #120 is only one third of a series I always envisaged once I looked over my captures from the day. It just took me a while to finish them… All three are below.